One Choice
by lionesseshuntbetterinpacks
Summary: A pregnant Katniss and Peeta decide to venture away from the group before Bettee's plan in the Quarter Quell, will this one choice cost one or both of their lives?


**Just my intake on what would have happened if Peeta and Katniss ventured away from the group during Catching Fire. Italisized print are exact book quotes.**

**I don't own The Hunger Games**

**Katniss**

_Peeta and I sit on the damp sand, facing away from each other, my right shoulder and hip pressed against his. _I can only imagine what is going through his head right now. I know I can barely put together my thoughts too. I'm not sure on what I think of Betee's plan. It's pure genius, but if his plan goes as it is expected to, it should wipe out pretty much the rest of the tributes, leaving behind our group. Our group of allies, the ones we trust, or at least try to trust.

After a while of staying in the same posistion, I rest my head against Peeta's shoulder. _I feel his hand caress my hair. _It's soothing and relaxing, I try to fight myself from closing my eyes.

"Peeta," I say breaking the comfortable silence between us. He looks up at me and I waste almost no time to get straight to the point, "We need to leave the group. Forget Betee's plan. I think our best chance at living is if we both ditch the group now, we have all the supplies we need right here with us, we can make it. The others wouldn't have even realized we've left until it's too late," I plead to Peeta, he has to agree with me to flee now. I can feel it, that for our safety we need to leave.

"Katniss, it's safer if we stay with the group until midnight, when we electrify the beach, then we can flee," Peeta says back.

"Peeta." I shake my head at him.

_"Katniss," he says softly, "it's no use pretending we don't know what the other one is trying to do." No, I guess there isn't, but it's no fun discussing it, either. Well, not for us, anyway. The Capitol viewers will be glued to their sets so they don't miss one wretched word. _And it disgusts me.

**"**_I don't know what kind of deal you think you've made with Haymitch, but you should know he made me promises as well." Of course, I know this, too. He told Peeta they could keep me alive so that he wouldn't be suspicious. "So I think we can assume he was lying to one of us." _Of course Haymitch was lying to one of us. I can only help but wonder which one of us he is lying to.

_"Why are you saying this now?" _I ask, in total confusion.

_"Because I don't want you forgetting how different our circumstances are. If you die, and I live, there's no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You're my whole life," he says. "I would never be happy again." I start to object but he puts a finger to my lips. _Peeta does this a lot, presses a gentle finger to my lips to quiet me, I discovered this when we started to spend more time together after the Victory Tour, although I'm the only person he does this gesture with. _"It's different for you. I'm not saying it wouldn't be hard. But there are other people would make your life worth living._

_Peeta pulls the chain with the gold disk from around his neck. He holds it in the moonlight so I can clearly see the mockingjay. _One of his last acts of rebellion? _Then his thumb slides along a catch I didn't notice before and the disk pops open. It's a locket. With the locket are photos. On the right side, my mother and Prim, laughing. And the left, Gale. Actually smiling. _I can't even begin to wonder where Peeta was able to find these photos of them.

_There is nothing in the world that could break me faster at this moment than these three faces. After what I heard this afternoon. . . it is the perfect weapon._

I stare at the gold locket putting two and two together on what this locket means. It's Peeta's way of encouraging me to let me live and to just let him die. I don't think he realizes how much I need him. As much as I have forbid myself thinking about Peeta in more ways of a friend, the idea has popped itself into my head it's fair share of times.

In this moment, I want to tell Peeta how much I love him, how much I need him and how I could never go on without him if he should die in this arena. We would both be better off if we died together in this arena.

I form my lips, to tell him how much he means to me, instead words pop out of his mouth first.

_"Your family needs you, Katniss," Peeta says._

_My family. My mother. My sister. And my pretend cousin Gale. _That's it, that's really the only family I have. And if I die, they could make it along together. _But Peeta's intention is clear. That Gale really is my family, or will be one day, if I live. That I'll marry him. So Peeta's giving me his life and Gale at the same time. To let me know I shouldn't ever have doubts about it. Everything. That's what Peeta wants me to take from him. _

_I wait for him to mention the baby, to play to the cameras, but he doesn't. _So I bring it up myself.

"But what about the baby?" I ask, Peeta just thinks I'm talking about the pretend baby he made up during our interviews, but what he doesn't realize, that an 11 week old baby rests in my womb. Peeta doesn't know about his child, Haymitch is the only one. If I told Peeta I was actually pregnant, there would be no chance of Peeta living, he would protect me, making sure we're the final two and then kill himself off.

Peeta doesn't respond at first, he keeps his head looking down at the sand. He places both of his hands on my stomach, where the baby he doesn't know about rests. He keeps his hands there for a few moments before he brings his dead down to my stomach to kiss it. He places his left ear on it too, as if he could pick up a faint heartbeat.

I bet the Capitol audience is on the very edge of the seat right now. The room so silent, you could hear a pen drop.

"Make sure she knows who I am," He makes the eye contact with me, and this time I can see the tears form in his eyes. And I wonder if they're fake or real. He doesn't know his actual child rests there. But they could be real, the realization coming to Peeta that if he dies in this arena, he would never be able to father a child, something he deserves and wants more than anything. And I want to be able to give it to him. . . even if it means me dying instead of him.

"How do you know it's a girl?" I ask. I wonder if this baby I'm carrying now is a girl, or maybe it's a boy. A boy or girl who perfectly resembles Peeta rather than me. But Peeta had something different in mind.

"I just know." Peeta confirms for me. He smiles as he says it. "She'll look exactly like you, brown hair and grey eyes."

We sit quietly for another few minutes before I hear Peeta release a deep breath.

_"No one really needs me," He says, and there's no self pity in his voice. It's true his family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me. _

_"_The baby needs you," He smiles at that mention of our baby. But I quickly add on:

_"I do, I need you." He looks upset, takes a deep breath as if to begin a long argument, and thats's no good, no good at all, because he'll start going on about Prim and my mother and everything and I'll just get confused. So before he can talk, I stop his lips with a kiss. _

_I feel that thing again. The thing I only felt once before. In the cave last year, when I was trying to get Haymitch to send us food. I kissed Peeta about a thousand times during those Games and after. But there was only one kiss that made me feel something stir deep inside. Only one that made me want more. But my head wound started bleeding and he made me lie down._

_This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Peeta gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is an entirely new kind. _

We pull apart and all we can both do is stare into each others eyes, I'm the first to break eye contact. Instead of getting up to leave, which is what I thought I would have done, I lean closer to him and rest my head against his shoulder. He wraps both of his muscular arms around me, creating a since of security. This is the first time in both arenas where I feel completely at ease, one hundred percent safe. I know that this feeling won't last me long.

Peeta just holds me and I cannot begin to explain to sensation it's giving me, where he's keeping his arms light a path of fire unable to extinguish itself.

"Are you sure you want to leave the group now?"

I quickly nod my head as my response.

"Well lets go then," He motions towards the rest of the group who have their backs turned. Before he gets up, he places his hands on my stomach, where the baby is resting, he thinks that the baby is something he made up, but how badly do I want to tell him in this moment that this baby is actually real, that he actually is going to be a dad, but of course the arena is no place for that. Maybe I'll tell him, to bring one of us comfort.

Peeta gets up first, then he reaches his hand out to me to help me up. Such a gentleman. Since the Cornucopia spun, pointing in a different direction, we're not sure where the next hour and what danger we're heading into, all I know is, it's better to leave the group now while we're still 'friends'. They can handle the careers, I'm sure of it. But what happens when the careers are killed off? How do we go from there?

"I'm not sure where we're heading to, Katniss. But I know we need to get as far away as possible from the beach," Peeta says as he gathers the spile we took from camp, hopefully the others can break into the tree for water somehow and some small leftover food rations. While I swing our only weapon, a bow and sheath of arrows around my back.

Peeta and must walk for hours before we decide to make camp for the night and decide to eat the remainder of our food. Peeta gives me some of his rations when he sees how quickly I went ate mine. We don't have a sleeping bag and a lot like our first Games, the temperature has been slowly plummeting at night. Peeta knows how cold I am because as soon as we both lay down, he wraps his arms around me and holds me tight, like he did in the train to fend off any nightmares threatening to take over my mind.

"I'll take first watch," He mumbles into my head before placing his fingers under my chin to life it up to kiss my lips.

"Okay," I say while yawning, "But wake my up when you feel tired." I fall asleep knowing that Peeta has my back.

It can't be but a few hours later when I feel a liquid between my legs. Did I pee myself? When I reach my hand down there, I discover my hand with blood on it. Only the blood isn't from the ground, or from Peeta, its from me?

I jump up, startling Peeta who fell asleep on watch.

"Peeta, I'm bleeding!" I franticly shout.

"Bleeding? From where?" Peeta sounds confused, "Is this your period?" He asks, a sudden tone of seriousness crosses his face.

That's when I have tears start to roll from my eyes, "No Peeta, I'm pregnant, and I don't think that I should be bleeding like this." I'm right, I shouldn't be bleeding like this, my mom always told other women from the Seam that excessive bleeding more than likely is from a miscarriage, but, I don't want a miscarriage, I want this baby.

"Pregnant?" Peeta asks with shock on his face. "Like actually pregnant?"

"Yes, like actually pregnant. I'm 11 weeks, but bleeding like this isn't normal." I tell him.

What did my mom tell the women who came to her in the Seam?

_This rarely works, but try laying down and levitate your legs about ground by at least six inches, it will also help stop the bleeding. _I hear her voice in my head, almost as if she were talking to me from District 12.

I don't tell Peeta what I'm doing, but he must catch on because he crosses his legs and picks my head up so I can rest in on his lap. I unconsciously plays with my hair and wipes away the stray tears that drop from my eyes.

"How far along were you?" Peeta asks in the silence of the jungle.

"Eleven weeks," I say simply, there isn't much to say. I pray he doesn't bring up the subject on why I didn't tell him I was pregnant and thankfully he did not.

Peeta does his best to distract me, I still feel small drips of blood, but the bleeding has significantly slowed down.

"No cannons went off last night," Peeta brought up, "I guess Bettee's plan didn't work after all,"

I don't respond to Peeta, but how couldn't have Bettee's plan not work? I wonder if it was because of Peeta and I leaving them. But even though we did, they should have been able to work it out.

Not to we hear the bushes move to the left of us do we sit as still as possible, not daring to breath louder than normal. We hear the bushes to our right start to move now. Peeta and I are in the most vulnerable positions right now to defend ourselves from an attack.


End file.
